ChangeFIFA was a campaign organisation, established in 2010 with the stated aim of making

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, the ruling body of world

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, more "fair and accountable".ChangeFIFA
's website

Creation

The organisation was created in June 2010 by English fan Oliver Fowler, a self-described "freelancer" and "football businessman". It claimed to be a strictly self-funded campaign. ChangeFIFA was run by Fowler and David Larkin, an American attorney based in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

Objectives

Oliver Fowler has outlined ChangeFIFA's objectives many times, in various articles. The organisation's stated objectives are to make FIFA "an organisation with a President and board voted in by the people who play, watch and love the game", and in more detail: * To allow all football fans to be members of FIFA * To give these fans, as FIFA members, the right to vote for the seat of FIFA president, and * To allow any FIFA member to be a FIFA presidential candidate

Action plan

ChangeFIFA's stated plan for reform is as follows: * An independent commission will lead an inquiry into FIFA, to ensure all FIFA proceedings become "transparent and open to the public". * On "major decisions affecting the international game", particularly the award of the hosting of the World Cup to member associations (a decision currently being made by the 24-man FIFA executive committee), all 208 FIFA member football associations would be voting. * Every decision, vote and action taken on international football would be openly communicated to the public. * Membership in the FIFA executive committee will be limited to fixed terms, and the president will not to serve more than two terms of office, overall. * FIFA's finances are to be published in detail, including all sources of funding and the salary packages of all its staff.

Methods

ChangeFIFA is strictly a

pressure group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

. Its aims, per the organisation's charter, are to be achieved through

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

and, if possible, negotiations with the world soccer's ruling body itself. They work through petition applications, lobbying, appearances in the media, and

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

.ChangeFIFA
on Facebook

Support

Joining forces with Change FIFA,

Damian Collins Damian Noel Thomas Collins (born 4 February 1974) is a British politician who served as a junior Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport between July and October 2022. A member of the ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe and member of the House of Commons'

Culture, Media and Sport Committee The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, formerly the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is one of the Select committee (United Kingdom), select committees of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, es ...

, has called for

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

's re‑election as FIFA president to be suspended and a "reform agenda" to be introduced at football's ruling organisation."ChangeFifa calls for governments to back its agenda for reform"
''The Guardian'', 30 May 2011 The British MP called on "members of parliaments and national assemblies" around the world to help reform FIFA by applying political pressure on the organisation. The agenda calls for an independent commission to lead an inquiry into FIFA and then ensure that the organisation's proceedings become transparent and open to the public; that all FIFA member-associations be allowed to vote on "major decisions" (instead of these decisions being made by FIFA's 24-person

Executive Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

); that all FIFA decisions, votes and actions be open to the public; and that FIFA's finances, in detail, become public. The agenda also calls for the FIFA president not to serve more than two terms of office.

FIFA presidential elections

On 29 March 2011, ChangeFIFA endorsed former Chilean defender and for 3 years running

South American Footballer of the Year The Rey de América ("King of America"), often referred to as the South American Footballer of the Year, is an annual association football award presented to the best footballer in South America over the previous calendar year. The award was con ...

Elias Figueroa for the FIFA presidency in the 2011 elections and urged FIFA's member-associations to back Figueroa, who needed to be nominated by a national football federation. However, on 31 March 2011, Figueroa announced he had decided not to accept his nomination as candidate, because "in such a short period of time I could not develop a case worthy of the magnitude and importance of such a distinguished job". In the 2011 elections, incumbent

, who has been FIFA president for 13 years, won a mandate for another 4-year term, by a margin of 172 votes to 17, with 17 abstaining. On 2 June 2015, Sepp Blatter resigned as

president of FIFA The following is a list of presidents of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world association football governing body. Presidents Daniel Burley Woolfall, Rodolphe Seeldrayers, and Arthur Drewry died during th ...

in the wake of corruption indictments of FIFA officials."Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president amid corruption scandal"
BBC Sport, 2 June 2015

References

External links

ChangeFIFA
official blog *, ''{{usurped,
Sabotage Times
}'' Association football supporters' associations